1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an air-cooled absorption type cooling/heating water generating apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus of the type described above which is provided with means for regulating the pressure and flow rate of a refrigerant and a solution (an absorbent) from which heat is removed in a condenser and an absorber directly cooled by external air (ambient air) and which are separated from each other in a separator after being heated in a regenerator, so as to prevent undesirable high-temperature degradation of the solution and undesirable build-up of an excessively high pressure in the apparatus attributable to a high temperature of ambient air, whereby the apparatus is suitable for stably carrying out its refrigerating operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An air-cooled absorption type water cooling/heating water generating apparatus is known in which a solution having absorbed a refrigerant evaporated in an evaporator is fed by a solution circulating pump to flow through a low-temperature solution heat exchanger and a high-temperature solution heat exchanger into a high-temperature regenerator to be heated in the high-temperature regenerator, and, after separation of the refrigerant from the solution in a separator, the separated refrigerant in vapor form is fed through a low-temperature regenerator into an air-cooled condenser to be condensed in the condenser, the condensed refrigerant being then fed by a refrigerant circulating pump to be recirculated into the evaporator. On the other hand, in the known apparatus, the solution separated from the refrigerant in the separator is fed through the high-temperature solution heat exchanger into the low-temperature regenerator and then into the low-temperature solution heat exchanger and, after heat exchange therein, the solution is recirculated into an air-cooled absorber cooled by ambient air sucked by a cooling fan. When the temperature of ambient air rises, a corresponding rise occurs in the temperature of the solution in the high-temperature regenerator or the internal pressure of the separator increases in such an prior art apparatus. Therefore, there is provided with a temperature sensor for sensing the temperature rise of the solution or a pressure sensor for sensing the internal pressure increase of the separator, and a control unit for detecting output signal of each sensor and generating a control signal to increase the rotation speed of the cooling fan so as to enhance the cooling effect, thereby preventing the temperature rise or the pressure increase, or generating a control signal to decrease the quantity of fuel supplied from a fuel valve so as to decrease the rate of fuel combustion thereby preventing the temperature rise or the pressure increase.
Actually, however, the air-conditioning or cooling load is large when the temperature of ambient air is high. Therefore, prevention of the temperature rise by merely increasing the rotation speed of the cooling fan thereby enhancing the cooling effect is virtually impossible because the physical input becomes eight times as large as the original input when, for example, the volume of air supplied by the cooling fan is doubled. Also, the decrease in the quantity of supplied fuel results in an adverse effect of an undesirable decrease in the cooling ability, and the apparatus cannot deal with a user's demand for increasing the cooling ability to meet an increased cooling load.
Thus, when the temperature of ambient air is high, the cooling effect is not appreciably increased by merely increasing the rotation speed of the cooling fan. As a result, the prior art apparatus has had fatal defects such as undesirable degradation of the property of the solution which is, for example, lithium bromide, due to the high temperature, unusual consumption of an inhibitor, and undesirable corrosion of steel members attributable to generation of non-condensable gases, The prior art apparatus has also been defective in that it cannot deal with a greatest demand of a user, that is, it cannot meet a user's cooling demand for increasing the cooling ability, and its commercial value would be lost.